ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL MECHANISMS OF DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH IN THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE INFLUENCE OF CONTEXT AND POLITENESS ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF UTTERANCES IN NARRATIVE TEXTS

Abstract

In modern linguistics, special attention is paid to the multi-layered nature of speech acts and the cross-linguistic variability of strategies for rendering reported speech. Japanese, with its highly developed politeness system (keigo) and unique syntactic mechanisms, represents a valuable object of study for processes of transforming direct speech into indirect speech, regulated not only by grammatical norms but also by pragmatic factors such as the interlocutors’ social status and narrative context. In literary texts these processes are particularly prominent, since authors consciously vary the degree of integration of characters’ utterances and politeness forms to achieve aesthetic or stylistic goals. The objective of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the grammatical and pragmatic mechanisms of transition from direct to indirect speech in contemporary Japanese narrative texts, with a focus on the influence of the politeness system and contextual factors (focalization, characters’ social roles, authorial strategy) on speech transformation. The key objectives include identifying syntactic markers (particles と, こと, よう), analyzing deictic shifts (personal pronouns, temporal and spatial indicators), studying the neutralization or preservation of levels of politeness (sonkeigo, kenjōgo, teineigo), providing a quantitative assessment of patterns, and developing a generalized model of factor interaction. The material consists of a representative sample of Japanese literary works of the 20th–21st centuries (novels and short stories by Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Yukio Mishima, and Ryūnosuke Akutagawa), totaling about 1000 pages. The corpus analysis makes it possible to extract instances of reported speech, classified into direct, indirect, and free indirect discourse. The methodology combines a corpus approach for data collection, a comparative-contrastive method for identifying transformations, and elements of quantitative analysis for frequency assessment. The analytical procedure included text segmentation, identification of constructions based on markers (quotation marks, particle と, verbs of speech), detailed examination of transformations, and statistical processing to reveal correlations between type of transformation, marker, and context. The analysis reveals the dominance of constructions with the particle と (64.7%), universal for conveying thoughts and speech, while こと (17.9%) is used for objectifying facts, and よう (11.2%) – for modal interpretation. Deictic shift is most consistent for personal pronouns (93.8%), less rigid for temporal markers (87.3%) and spatial adverbs (79.5%). Politeness transformation shows an almost complete neutralization of teineigo (98.5%), but significant preservation of sonkeigo (28.4%) and kenjōgo (21.7%), depending on the marker. Correlation analysis con- firmed the hierarchy: from syntactic choice of marker to pragmatic neutralization. The results demonstrate a flexible system in which transformations obey hierarchical principles, integrating syntax, pragmatics, and stylistics. The novelty lies in the systematic consideration of the correlation between markers and the preservation of politeness, with a mathematical justification of the hierarchy of processes. The theoretical significance is in the contribution to reported speech models by incorporating Japanese-specific features; the practical significance is in application to Japanese language teaching and translation. The study emphasizes that the boundary between direct and indirect speech in Japanese is permeable, serving as a powerful narrative tool, and opens perspectives for comparative studies in other languages.